Free at last?!

We’re so young. We can’t, we MUST not lose this sense of possibility because in the end, it’s all we have.” – Marina Keegan, ‘The Opposite of Loneliness’

Whoooooooooooooo!!!! The holidays are here at last! Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty school children are free at last! Never mind what your teachers say about hitting the books during the holidays (those can wait for a while more!) – go out:  catch a movie! The new Spiderman movie is out! Read all of those books you might have been staying away from while you were studying! Have fun!
The other day I was reading an essay (The Opposite of Loneliness) written by a young Yale graduate, Marina Keegan, who recently died in a car accident. The essay was published in the Yale Daily News. It was written for her commencement and the gist of what she was telling her fellow graduates was they still have so much time to achieve anything and that they should live life to the fullest. And yet, ironically, she died soon after, just before she was about to start her job at the New Yorker – yes, the New Yorker – before she could achieve any of the many things she wanted to.
So, not to be morbid but there’s no telling when it will all end, so seize the moment, don’t wait for tomorrow, do it today. Live in the moment. And no, I don’t mean you should go out partying wildly and getting wasted and emulating those people who justify it all by shouting ‘YOLO’.
What I mean is, children, don’t waste your entire holiday sitting at the computer glued to Reddit or 9GAG – there’s a whole world out there.
And when you decide to venture outside, don’t go out with your ears plugged up with earphones as you walk down the street, trapped in your own music-bubble, bobbing your head to whatever tune you’re listening to. I know I’m guilty of having my ears plugged up on the bus, in the car, wherever and never bothering to unplug even when someone is trying to speak to me – I just usually smile and nod to whatever they’re saying. And that’s not something that I’m proud of.
Basically what I’m saying is to form or intensify your relationships – with family, friends or neighbours – by doing things together.
And besides, when the holiday is over and it’s time to return to school in September, you’ll probably wish you had done something fun during the holiday. Plus, you’ll need something interesting to write about for those ‘How I spent my Summer Holidays’ essays you’re bound to be given by some incredibly imaginative teacher as soon as school reopens.
And parents, your children will be home for the next two months, take time off from work and take them out on holiday somewhere. The holiday doesn’t have to be the South of France, it could be around Guyana – just spend time as a family. How many of you guys have seen the interior of Guyana, or Kaieteur Falls, or scaled a Guyanese mountain? As I’ve written before, Guyana is a wonderful place to tour – you just need to give it a chance.
And most importantly for this holiday, JUST.HAVE.FUN!!!